The copper cycles of European countries |
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Authors: | M?Bertram Email author" target="_blank">T?E?GraedelEmail author K?Fuse R?Gordon R?Lifset H?Rechberger S?Spatari |
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Institution: | (1) Center for Industrial Ecology, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 205 Prospect St., New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA, |
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Abstract: | A comprehensive technological copper cycle treating a series of life stages (mining and processing, fabrication, utilization,
and end of life) has been constructed for sixteen countries on the European continent for the year 1994. In this paper we
draw on that information to present country-level copper cycles for a sampling of the countries. We then compare the countries
on the basis of their relative and absolute copper production, import/export, usage, recycling, and losses to the environment,
and go on to produce per capita assessments of flow and stock changes. Among the results of particular interest are: (1) country-level
copper budgets possess features often different from the continental budgets of which they are a part. For example, Europe
extracted only slightly more copper from mines than it deposited in landfills, while the mine to landfill flow ratio was about
11:1 in Poland and near zero in the United Kingdom; (2) Germany led all other countries in the group of sixteen in the absolute
magnitude of every major copper flow (production, import, export, consumption, and waste generation, and in per capita flows
of copper entering use and waste management), while the Benelux countries led all others in per capita flows for all other
categories; (3) citizens of essentially all the countries discarded 1–3 kg Cu/year, mostly in obsolete electronics and end-of-life
vehicles. |
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Keywords: | Waste management Copper import Copper export Recycling |
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